Covered California yesterday released application statistics for the first three weeks of November, as well as updated numbers for agents, assisters and call center volume. The numbers showed significant improvement over October statistics for the state’s new health insurance exchange.

“We are receiving more than 10,000 applications every single day,” said Peter Lee, the exchange’s executive director.  

Through Nov. 23, the number of completed enrollment applications hit 385,556 — a significant jump over the 179,562 applications reported as started but not all completed in October.

At last week’s exchange board meeting, Lee said enrollment in exchange health plans has reached 79,981 people, as of Nov. 19 — more than doubling October’s enrollment of 30,830 in less than three weeks in November.

Also, in the third week of November:

• The website had 427,082 “unique visits,” which is roughly the same interest level in the third week as the website had in the month of October.  

• The three exchange call centers had a spike in interest, with 94,532 calls during the third week of November. (In October the call centers received about 250,000.)

• A total of 20,563 assisters have been certified or authorized by the exchange to help people decide on their health care plan, including 7,449 certified insurance agents.

“The underpinning of these numbers is what’s happening in communities across the state of California,” Lee said. “When we get asked why things are happening well in California, it’s because of what’s happening in the churches, in the schools, in the community clinics. … And it’s changing people’s lives.”